but in october 2009, the taliban launched the most ferocious assault ever. and unleashed a deadly downpour of fire like shooting fish in a barrel. >> 360 degrees, we were taking, you know, rfgs, machine gunfire, mortar fire was coming in. i mean, it was accurate. it was, you know, on target. it was pinning positions down. >> reporter: the americans were vastly outnumbered, nearly 400 to 52. in the first hour, three u.s. soldiers were killed. others pinned down by gunfire. and with no regard for his own life, romesha led five others on a rescue mission. >> it was going to be a knife fight, getting to where we were going. >> reporter: romesha took out an enemy machine gun and then was blown off his feed by a rocket-p rocket-propelled grenade. romesha rallied a search party and plunged back into the fight. >> we had so many guys we hadn't heard from in forever. my biggest concern was they were going to take bodies away. we weren't going to let that happen. >> reporter: then the unthinkable. taliban fighters made it inside the wire and on to the base. >> they th